Pass rate
88.4%
Above average — 2.4 pts ahead of the 86.0% that cars this age and mileage manage.
Across 4,570 recorded tests.
Typical repair bill £45–£119
2017 Volvo S90 MOT pass rate
- 2017
- typical 67,565 mi
Check your postcode
Most common fault
Tyres
32.8% of faults · 19.8% nationally
mostly tread below the limit, cuts and sidewall bulges.
Which year to buy
- Best 2019 90.1% pass
- Avoid 2016 86.1% pass
Across the 4 years on record, a spread of 4 points. See every year →
- First-attempt pass
- 87.0%
- Typical mileage
- 68k mi
The 2017 Volvo S90 MOT pass rate is 88.4% of its MOT tests — 2.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. Tyres is the biggest single reason it fails, at 32.8% of what testers record.
Expert verdict
Tyres: 1.7× the national share
Tyres make up 32.8% of everything recorded on the 2017 Volvo S90, against 19.8% nationally — 13.0 points above. Check all four tyres yourself, including the inner shoulders, and look at the date stamp — a tyre can pass on tread and still be six years old.
- When it fails, it costs. Only 7% of this model’s typical repairs come in under £30 in parts — the failures here tend to be the kind that need a garage rather than a bulb.
Written from this page's own figures: fault shares against the national composition, the like-for-like pass rate, and the priced repair list. How these are worked out
Watching a Volvo S90? Get an email when these numbers change .
How does the 2017 Volvo S90 compare?
Cars of this age and mileage average 86.0%, so this figure is 2.4 points ahead of what its age and mileage predict. On a first attempt, before any retests, the figure drops to 87.0%. The median 2017 Volvo S90 in this dataset had covered 67,565 mi.
The most common fuel recorded here is Diesel — 98% of tests, with a 88.3% pass rate. Pass rates also shift with the test month: tests recorded October–March passed 88.5% of the time, April–September 88.2%.
The single most recorded failure item is "Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view", noted on 2.36% of tests.
- 4,570 recorded tests behind this page.
- 88.4% overall pass rate, 87.0% on a first attempt.
- Across every year of the Volvo S90, the average is 89.4% — best year 2019 (90.1%), worst 2016 (86.1%).
Figures count every completed test on this vehicle-year in the dataset, including retests. See methodology for the exact definition.
This page's data
- Tests analysed
- 4,570
- Typical mileage (median)
- 67,565 mi
- Make and model
- Volvo S90
- Updated
- 2026-11-07
Source: DVSA anonymised MOT test data (2023–2025), OGL v3.0.
Top part to budget for
Windscreen
Typically a garage job — get quotes before committing.
Does mileage affect the S90 MOT pass rate?
Pass rate by odometer reading. Bar lengths start at 78% so small gaps stay visible.
Fuel type and reliability
Pass rate by fuel type. Diesel is the most common here (98% of tests).
Where the Volvo S90 is most common
Across all S90 model years on record (2016–2019): 9,419 Volvo S90 cars tested in a recordable postcode area, across 19,062 tests. Birmingham (B) has the most, with 285 cars tested there. Cars are counted by the postcode area of the MOT station, so this is where they were tested, not necessarily where their owners live.
| # | Postcode area | Cars | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham (B) | 285 | 89.6% |
| 2 | Glasgow (G) | 257 | 89.3% |
| 3 | Peterborough (PE) | 226 | 89.0% |
| 4 | Doncaster (DN) | 208 | 91.7% |
| 5 | Sheffield (S) | 208 | 90.9% |
| 6 | Northampton (NN) | 184 | 88.2% |
| 7 | Nottingham (NG) | 183 | 88.2% |
| 8 | Coventry (CV) | 183 | 90.6% |
| 9 | Newcastle upon Tyne (NE) | 169 | 90.3% |
| 10 | London (NW) | 168 | 91.3% |
| 11 | Leicester (LE) | 163 | 91.9% |
| 12 | Warrington (WA) | 156 | 82.8% |
| 13 | Manchester (M) | 148 | 88.9% |
| 14 | Reading (RG) | 144 | 89.8% |
| 15 | Liverpool (L) | 141 | 89.5% |
| 16 | London (N) | 135 | 93.8% |
| 17 | Milton Keynes (MK) | 125 | 86.2% |
| 18 | London (E) | 123 | 94.7% |
| 19 | Romford (RM) | 122 | 92.3% |
| 20 | Stoke On Trent (ST) | 121 | 90.5% |
The twenty areas with the most Volvo S90 cars in the record, sorted by car count — sort the columns for a different question. Cars tested at a station whose postcode area could not be resolved are counted in the model's total but in no area, so the shares add up to slightly under 100% even across every area, and an area's cars are a subset of the model's. Pass rate is blank below 30 tests in an area, where a percentage is noise rather than a finding. How this model's pass rate varies by postcode →
Regional pass rates for the S90
| Region | Tests | Pass rate |
|---|---|---|
| South East | 824 | 89.3% |
| North West | 583 | 87.7% |
| East of England | 533 | 86.9% |
| Scotland | 478 | 86.8% |
| West Midlands | 475 | 90.5% |
| Yorkshire | 418 | 87.3% |
| East Midlands | 379 | 86.5% |
| London | 296 | 92.6% |
| South West | 236 | 89.0% |
| North East | 189 | 89.9% |
| Wales | 158 | 86.7% |
Regions come from the postcode area recorded at the test station. Areas on region borders are assigned to the region with the majority of their population.
What fails a 2017 S90
Everything a tester recorded on this vehicle, grouped into the inspection sections that produced it. The notch on each bar is the national share, so you can see at a glance whether this car is unusual or just ordinary.
A test can record several items, so these percentages do not add up to 100%. The exact strings, with prices, are in the full DVSA record at the bottom of this page.
Before your test
Three checks worth doing on a 2017 S90
These are not generic tips — they are the faults recorded most often on this exact model, rewritten as things you can check yourself. All three take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
-
Check the windscreen 2.4% of tests
“windscreen damaged”
Check the driver’s side of the screen within the swept area for chips and cracks; anything larger than 10mm in the driver’s central view is a fail. Most chips can be resin-repaired for far less than a new screen.
-
Check the brakes 1.7% of tests
“brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick”
Look through the spokes of each wheel at the pad — less than 3mm of friction material, or a lip on the disc edge, is the usual failure. Check the handbrake holds on a slope with a few clicks, not at the top of its travel.
-
Check the coil springs 1.5% of tests
“coil spring fractured or broken”
Look up inside each wheel arch with a torch, all the way round the spring. A snapped spring usually breaks at the very bottom coil, where a quick glance will not reach.
Shares are the proportion of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item, so they overlap: one test can record several.
What it costs to get a 2017 S90 through its MOT
Across the 10 items that are recorded most often on this model, the average repair comes to £45–£119 — and 7% of those repairs are parts that cost under £30.
- Average repair across the 10 common items
- £45–£119
- Cheapest common item: wipers blade defective
- £8–£22
- Dearest common item: joints constant velocity boot split or…
- £80–£250
- Common items a careful owner can do at home
- 70%
- Repairs that still cost under £30
- 7%
Estimates from typical UK parts prices, weighted by how often each item appears in 4,570 MOT tests on this vehicle. They exclude diagnostics, retest fees and garage labour where the part is a DIY fit, and they are not figures from the DVSA dataset. Older and higher-mileage examples cost more than the average. How these estimates are built → · All MOT repair costs → · Cheapest cars to put through a test →
Every year of the S90, side by side
4 model years on record, from 2016 to 2019. Across them the pass rate runs from 86.1% to 90.1% — a spread of 4 points. The bar under each year is the item that failed it most often.
- 2016 86.1% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2017 88.4%windscreen damaged but not…
- 2018 89.9% windscreen damaged but not…
- 2019 90.1% windscreen damaged but not…
Colour is the pass rate on a fixed scale, so a block means the same thing on any model. Each year links to its own page with the full fault breakdown.
Compare the 2017 Volvo S90 with another year
The raw pass rate mostly measures age. The year comparison adds the like-for-like figure, the mileage bands and the repair bill.
Other 2017 cars with a similar record
- BMW 5 Series 88.4%
- Skoda Citigo 88.4%
- BMW 220 88.4%
- Ford C-Max 88.5%
- BMW 3 Series 88.5%
- BMW 316 88.5%
Closest pass rates among 2017 cars with at least 2,000 tests, so a small sample cannot flatter itself into the list. See the full rankings: best and worst MOT pass rates.
The full DVSA record for the 2017 Volvo S90 10 failure items · 6 advisories · 10 inspection categories · mileage brackets · all of it in the page, none of it above the fold
Every inspection category
Shares of the 3,940 individual items recorded on this vehicle, and the same share across all cars nationally. A single test can record several items, so a row is not a percentage of tests.
| Category | Items | This car | Nationally | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tyres | 1,310 | 32.80% | 19.76% | +13.04 |
| Brakes | 1,068 | 26.70% | 20.89% | +5.81 |
| Suspension | 480 | 12.00% | 20.98% | −8.98 |
| Non-component advisories | 261 | 6.50% | 4.18% | +2.32 |
| Steering | 234 | 5.90% | 2.57% | +3.33 |
| Visibility | 195 | 4.90% | 4.97% | −0.07 |
| Body, chassis, structure | 154 | 3.90% | 5.57% | −1.67 |
| Noise, emissions and leaks | 110 | 2.80% | 5.52% | −2.72 |
| Lamps, reflectors and electrical equipment | 70 | 1.80% | 12.21% | −10.41 |
| Identification of the vehicle | 58 | 1.50% | 1.76% | −0.26 |
The exact failure items, in the tester's words
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view Visibility | Minor | 2.4% | £80–200 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Major | 1.7% | £18–45 |
| Coil spring fractured or broken Suspension | Major | 1.5% | £25–65 |
| Has a cut in excess of the requirements deep enough to reach the ply or cords Tyres | Major | 1.3% | £45–95 |
| Joints constant velocity boot split or insecure, no longer prevents the ingress of dirt Body, chassis, structure | Major | 1.2% | £80–250 |
| Ball joint dust cover severely deteriorated Suspension | Minor | 1.0% | £18–45 |
| Joints constant velocity boot severely deteriorated Body, chassis, structure | Minor | 0.96% | £80–250 |
| Wipers blade defective Visibility | Minor | 0.88% | £8–22 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Major | 0.85% | £18–45 |
| Has ply or cords exposed Tyres | Major | 0.79% | £45–95 |
Severity is as recorded: Major and Dangerous fail the test outright; Minor and Advisory do not. Costs are estimates from typical UK parts prices — see how they are built.
What testers noted without failing the car
Advisories are the early warnings — the same parts a year or two before they fail. Reading them is how you tell a car that has been maintained from one that has been patched.
| Recorded item | Severity | Tests | Est. cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tread depth below requirements of 1.6mm Tyres | Advisory | 13.6% | £45–95 |
| Brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick Brakes | Advisory | 12.1% | £18–45 |
| Has a tear, caused by separation or partial failure of its structure Tyres | Advisory | 5.5% | £45–95 |
| Brake discs in such a condition that it is seriously weakened Brakes | Advisory | 4.6% | £45–110 |
| Brake discs significantly and obviously worn Brakes | Advisory | 3.1% | £45–110 |
| Track rod end ball joint has excessive play Steering | Advisory | 3.1% | £18–45 |
Pass rate by mileage
| Mileage | Tests | Pass rate | Median odometer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-30k | 232 | 93.1% | 22,746 mi |
| 30-60k | 1,549 | 91.0% | 47,350 mi |
| 60-90k | 1,625 | 86.8% | 73,310 mi |
| 90-120k | 702 | 86.3% | 102,345 mi |
| 120k+ | 462 | 86.1% | 154,999 mi |
Source: 4,570 recorded tests on this vehicle-year. Every row above is recomputed from the same DVSA extract as the rest of the page — see the methodology.
2017 S90 MOT questions
What is the MOT pass rate for a 2017 Volvo S90?
88.4% of the 4,570 2017 Volvo S90 tests in this dataset passed, against a national average of 86.0% for cars first used in 2017. First-attempt pass rate: 87.0%.
What are the most common MOT failures on a 2017 Volvo S90?
The three most recorded items are windscreen damaged but not adversely affecting driver's view (2.36%), brake pads less than 1.5 mm thick (1.68%), coil spring fractured or broken (1.47%). Percentages are the share of tests on this vehicle that recorded the item.
Does mileage affect the 2017 Volvo S90 MOT pass rate?
Yes. Cars under 30,000 miles passed 93.1% of the time, falling to 86.1% for those over 120,000 miles. The median 2017 Volvo S90 in this dataset had covered 67,565 mi.
Which fuel type is most reliable for a 2017 Volvo S90?
Diesel: 88.3% pass rate across 4,470 tests. Hybrid: 91.5% pass rate across 94 tests. Shares are of the tests on this vehicle that recorded each fuel type.
Does the season affect the 2017 Volvo S90 MOT pass rate?
Tests recorded in the winter months (October–March) passed 88.5% of the time; summer months (April–September) passed 88.2%. Brakes, tyres and lights are tested harder in bad weather, but the difference is small on most models.